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EJ Dionne on the media, Trump, 2016, and the state of the country
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-great-trump-distortion/2016/03/30/3f93792a-f6a6-11e5-8b23-538270a1ca31_story.htmlThe evidence is in, and it shows that the dominant media narratives about 2016 are wrong. Our country is not roiled with across-the-board discontent, and Donald Trump is not the most important voice in our politics. Turmoil in one of our political parties is being misread as reflecting a deep crisis well beyond its boundaries.
The most revealing and underplayed development of the week is Gallups finding that President Obamas approval rating hit 53 percent (not once, but three times). This was its highest level since April 2013. If the people of the United States had lost all confidence in their institutions, the president wouldnt be enjoying such a surge in popularity.
. . . .
Now only Pollyanna or Candide would conclude that everything is going swimmingly for our country. The Trump rebellion in the GOP and the Bernie Sanders revolution among Democrats both reveal the discontent of Americans who have been left out in our return to prosperity. If there is a bipartisan message in 2016, it is that our ruling classes have ignored the plight of those being hammered by technological change and globalization.
But Trumpism is a very poor guide to what needs to be done. Those hurting include both middle-aged white working-class voters, particularly men, and African Americans who as the sociologist William J. Wilson showed in his pioneering book When Work Disappears were particularly disadvantaged by deindustrialization. At a time when we need to address legitimate grievances across our lines of division, Trump is driving a racial and ethnic wedge through the country. As Jason McDaniel and Sean McElwee pointed out in an important analysis of the data on the contest so far, racial attitudes uniquely predict support for Trump, including racial resentment and explicit racial stereotypes. This doesnt mean that we should write off the pain many Trump supporters feel. Nor should we ignore Trumps challenge to conservative economic orthodoxy. But in the wall-to-wall coverage of Trump, the backlash around race and how he is courting it deserve far more scrutiny even if this means The Donald might turn down a television networks offer to do yet another telephone interview, in his pajamas, if he wishes.
At the least, the media might start asking whether the presidents popularity and Trumps relative lack of it tell us something very important about what is happening in our nation that is being utterly lost in the clamor of Trumpism. We are allowing a wildly and destructively inaccurate portrait of us as a people to dominate our imaginations and debase our thinking. If you will forgive me for borrowing from the man obsessed with talking about winners, someone here is a loser, and its not Barack Obama.
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EJ Dionne on the media, Trump, 2016, and the state of the country (Original Post)
MBS
Mar 2016
OP
Gidney N Cloyd
(19,847 posts)1. I think it's "EJ," but who listens...
MBS
(9,688 posts)2. sorry for the typo, will fix it. n/t